1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to automotive safety systems. More particularly, it relates to seatbelt systems and post-factory equipment to improve safety of the seatbelt system, particularly for tactical use.
2. Background of the Related Art
Seatbelts are essential equipment installed at the factory in vehicles. General seatbelt use goes back as far as 1849—before the invention of the automobile. One early U.S. patent for a seatbelt is U.S. Pat. No. 312,085, issued in 1885, entitled “Safety Belt”.
Early automobiles used a lap belt, or 2-point seatbelt. The lap belt 2-point seatbelt was a basic restraint system comprising a seatbelt anchored at two attachment points. The lap belt 2-point seatbelt was intended for use generally across the vehicle occupant's hips and thighs.
Modern automobile manufacturers now factory-install what is known as the lap and shoulder seatbelt, or 3-point seatbelt. The first lap and shoulder 3-point seatbelt was introduced by Volvo in 1959, and became standard equipment in all vehicles manufactured in the United States two decades later. A lap and shoulder 3-point seatbelt (also called a combination belt) comprises both a lap portion and a shoulder portion, and in total is anchored at three points (one shoulder, two hips). The 3-point seatbelt restrains the occupant at the hips/thighs as well as across the shoulder.
FIG. 11 shows a depiction of the relevant portion of a conventional 3-point seatbelt 130, with a male latch 132 on the fabric seatbelt 134 secured into a female latch connector 135 that is in turn bolted to the vehicle at point 137, as are the two ends 138, 139 of the fabric seatbelt 134.
Some vehicles have a female latch connector 135 with a quick release button on the side of the latch connector 135. Other vehicle designs include a female latch connector 135 with a quick release button on top of the latch connector. Some release buttons take little pressure to actuate release of the seatbelt, while other release buttons require more pressure on the button to actuate, particularly when the seatbelt is experiencing tension due to the seatbelt being very tight around the occupant.
Automobiles have many uses, most of which relate to the general population who drives them to work, school, mall, market, vacation home, etc. The needs of this main market tends to drive the design of automobiles, including seatbelt design. However, a smaller number of automobiles are employed for use in tactical applications such as by police, military, drug enforcement, or Homeland Security personnel.
In many tactical applications, a rider sits in a vehicle with a forward-leaning posture because of equipment that they are carrying. For instance, fully (or even partially) equipped military personnel may be driving a vehicle in a war zone while wearing weaponry, communications gear, backpack, body armor, etc. Police may be operating a vehicle carrying a waist or shoulder mounted weapon or communications gear. Drug enforcement officers and Homeland security personnel may also be carrying gear and/or weaponry while driving a vehicle.
Use of a conventional 3-point seatbelt in such tactical applications may cause more risk to the occupant than the safety it provides. This is particularly true where the occupant may need to quickly exit the vehicle. Police officers are much less likely to wear the 3-point seatbelt in a tense and unpredictable situation, particularly when involved with an armed person, so they don't waste precious seconds or even fractions of a second in the event that they fumble in reaching for the release button for the 3-point seatbelt. Even worse, the tactical occupant may need to look down to find the seatbelt release button, taking their eye off a target, and again either risk their lives to a greater threat in those split seconds, or risk loss of sight of an evasive target.
In military situations, it is believed that a significant number of military deaths have occurred in vehicles because the occupant opted to not wear their seatbelt so that they could quickly duck or exit the vehicle when encountering enemy fire. Particularly in military situations, split seconds lost trying to locate the seatbelt release button, or worse yet the need to look down to locate the seatbelt release button, may cost the occupant their life to enemy fire. As a result, a tactical person wearing military gear may decide that in the balance, it is ‘safer’ to their life to not wear the 3-point seatbelt at that time lest they fall victim to the greater tactical threat.
There are even more practical realities that cause a tactical occupant to opt to not wear their seatbelt. For instance, the tactical occupant might be wearing a waist-mounted firearm that could get tangled within the factory-installed 3-point seatbelt, causing a risk of entanglement with the weapon, unintended discharge of the weapon, or worse.
Conventional 3-point seatbelt release mechanisms may not always permit law enforcement, military personnel and other tactical operators wearing body armor, weapons belts, and/or other equipment to rapidly release their seatbelt in an emergency situation. Accordingly, while the recognized safety benefits of 3-point seatbelts are incontrovertible, there are some uses of vehicles (e.g., tactical applications) that effectively place the occupant in significant external danger should they not be able to release themselves from the seatbelt allowing them to exit or move within the vehicle at any moment. As a result, the inventor herein has recognized that the occupant of a vehicle in such tactical or similar application may opt to not wear their factory-installed 3-point seatbelt at a time when external risks present a greater danger. Of course, if the occupant is not wearing their seatbelt, they will not be protected by the safety mechanisms associated with such seatbelt use, including unintended ejection from the vehicle in a rollover, proper positioning for airbag deployment, etc.
There is a need for faster release from factory-installed 3-point seatbelts.